Seoul International Labor Media '99 Session 1 : Keynote Speech

On the significance and

keynote of this conference

Jinkyoon Kim (Convener of Organizing Committee)

First of all, I would like express my welcome and gratitude for the comrades who are here after long journey, in behalf of Korean workers and activists. It's really nice to meet again some of friends, who they joined the 1997 labor media conference. For two years, we have experienced lots of changes.

Just after the last conference in 1997, the Korean capitalism was driven into an economic crisis, all the burdens of which were shouldered to the workers and people. In this context, Korean workers has waged the struggle for their basic right of livelihood, against the neoliberal structural adjustment of the state and capital.

Now we are here to assess our struggle and activities and to pursue a new perspective. I hope all the comrades here will be able to reach constructive strategy for their labor media and communication activities by sharing experiences and exchanging creative ideas.

Seoul International Labor Media 1997

Above all, look back at Seoul International Labor Media 19997. That conference was held on the basis of activities of telecommunication and media task groups to support the general strike, which broke out against the abrupt revisions of the labor laws. This general strike was one of the international labor struggles against neoliberalism, and it awakened to Korean activists the importance of international solidarity and communication, as lots of oversea activists came to Seoul to support Korean workers struggle, and with aid of ardent activities of telecommunication task group, workers and activists all over the world sent a lot of messages for solidarity and support. On the basis of these experiences of struggle, at last, in November 1997, the first international media conference was held at the site of struggle: "Labor Movement and Media : Workers, Information Technology and Solidarity."

This conference focused on the general topic of informatization and tasks of labor movement in the context of globalization, at the sessions of "Globalization, Informatization and Labor Movement", and "Informatization, Change in Workplace, and Challenge for Labor Movement." And at workshops we had discussions on the important issues in specific sectors: "International Labor Video Movement: Its Conditions and Tasks", "Media and Labor Movement", "Labor Movement and Informatization", and "International Solidarity though Network of Labor Movements."

This conference was joined by important labor communication and media activists, like Chris Bailey, Steve Zeltzer, Peter Waterman, Eric Lee, Julius fisher and so on, and thereby provided an opportunity to introduce international discussions on these issues, arousing interests in labor communication and media among the activists in Korea. And also the dynamics of Korean labor movement was a creative stimulation for the foreign activists. For example, Eric Lee opened his own website called Solidarity with Korean Labor Movement, which was later developed into Labour Start, an important source for worldwide workers struggle.

And internally, this conference upgraded the mind on media and communication among the unionists and activists, and the process of preparing and hosting the conference was the decisive momentum to start discussing on LaborNet Korea. As a result of one year's discussion and organization, we succeeded in launching Jinbo Network Center and LaborNet Korea, November 1998.

Now, Jinbo Network is an independent network center which provides the PC communication and Internet service, and continues to grow, with the membership of about 2,300 thousand unionists and activist. And NodongNet, LaborNet Korea, is organized by the participation of the two labor federation, KCTU and FKTU, hundred of trade unions and dozens of labor activity groups, and as a central network at Jinbo Network, has more than 170 CUGs for sharing information and communication among the unionists and activists.

On the other hand, the labornets which, in 1997, existed just in couple of countries like US and UK, have been spread to other countries of Canada, Austria, Germany, and Korea. We have also seen the similar efforts spreading all over the globe. Furthermore, a variety of websites by trade unions, labor organizations, and individuals were interlinked in the cyberspace. And now the labornets are functioning as a venue for information, communication and discussion, connecting with labor movements worldwide.

Seoul International Labor Media 1999

Labor Movement, New Media and Communication : Workers Global Network Strategy against Neoliberal Offensive of Capital

Now we are here again at the exact end of the century. This conference is held on the basis of our efforts and achievements of the first Seoul International Labor Media and the subsequent activities nationally and internationally. This conference will make an exact and objective appraisal of these activities and achievements, and take a further step toward elaborating our perspective and orientation

In this conference, we will discuss the network strategy of labor movements to further strengthen the worldwide struggle by means of active international solidarity, considering the growing trend of international workers struggle against neoliberal offensive. For this task, this conference should serve as a momentum to share the recent development of labor movements on the different continents, to expand labor media movement through communication networks and new media, and to build international struggle networks fighting against the transnational capital.

In short, this labor media conference regards it as its focal task to discuss the workers network strategy to fight, on the global level, against neoliberal offensive of global capitalism, which is destroying the basic livelihood and living standard of workers around the world by such policies as structural adjustment, privatization, liberalization, deregulation, labor flexibilization, union busting, and so on. This strategy can be discussed in three dimension: firstly, network strategy of labor movements against neoliberal offensive; secondly, communication and democracy strategy with labor movement, nationally and internationally; and finally, media strategy based on the need of rank and file workers.

Network Strategy of Labor Movements

The more prevalent the neoliberal globalization and dominance by transnational capital is getting at the global level, the more necessary it is for the labor movements to go beyond national borders and build the international solidarity. Basically, this kind of solidarity is based on their common conditions and experiences of workers and their movements. Despite common experiences, it is true that the specifically different features have brought abut uneven developments among the different labor movements.

However, recent experiences of communication and network provides the possibility of joint response and everday solidarity at the global level, as well as sharing experiences. In this aspect, it is an urgent need to elaborate the network strategy for consolidating solidarity activities beyond unevenness among workers and trade unions. This conference will be an opportunity to discuss in detail the concrete plan to build network of labor movements which will connect and coordinate international struggles, for instance, struggle to control the transnational capital, to reduce working hours, and movements of the unemployed.

Democracy and Communicaton of Labor Movement

In spite of ever-growing attacks on workers by globalization and neoliberalism, most of trade unions are faced with deep crisis, with dominant ideology of business unionism and social partnership and drastically decreasing union density. Not only the trade unions in the advanced countries which have strong tradition of class collaboratism, but also the trade unions in the developing countries, such as South Africa, Brazil, Mexico, and Korea, which led an independent and militant current in the international terrain, are now often confronted with similar crisis. As a result, national trade unions and international labor organizations, faced with strong critique from within and without, are forced to find a new role and perspective.

On the other hand, rank and file workers, with unprecedented rich information and experiences, are raising their voice of reform and renovation for the independent and democratic unionism. Furthermore, besides official unions, grassroots groups and rank and file workers are getting involved in important struggle of trade unions, and in the various activities for international solidarity. In this context, this conference will discuss the tasks for creating a democratic structure for labor communication, and also tasks and plans for democratic renovation of trade union movement.

Media Strategy of Labor Movement

In the past when the freedom of press and expression was under severe oppression in some countries including Korea, the illegal press, such as under ground newspaper and broadcast, played a significant role. But recently, under evergrowing neoliberal offensive, alternative media strategy is not raised, and especially in the labor movements, there is little attempt to activate the alternative media and most of efforts are focused on the media reform, so that it's difficult to find any significant project of independent labor media activities for rank and file workers.

Recently, with the development of communication and media technology, media activities are being active in the labor movements, and the new media, such as the internet broadcast and satellite channel, stimulates alternative media activities. More than acquisition of media, these new media activities should make an allowance for the changed environment, that is, the trend that, with the emergence of new media and development of information technology, the old media, such as newspaper and broadcast, is combined with new one.

On the conference program

The Second Seoul International Labor Media '99 is composed of diverse programs on the basis of above-mentioned keynote: Labor Media Conference, and Labor Video and Film Festival, Special Internet Broadcast, Union Bulletin Exhibition, and Information Education for Activists.

This Labor Media Conference is composed of the sessions and the workshops. Following the first session 1 of his keynote speech, the second session will discuss the labor movement in general under the title of "The Challenges of Labor Movement in the 21st Century and its International Communication Strategy." And the final session will be a venue for sharing workshop reports and further discussion.

Basically, the workshops will deal with more detailed, specific issues of media and communication. In this conference, we have 11 workshop of different issues.

First of all, the main characteristics of the workshops is that they deal with diverse and specific issues. For example, in the media-related workshops, we will discuss new and specific issues of independent channel and internet broadcast, as well as labor video. And another feature is that, in addition to traditional issues of informatization experiences of unions and international labornets, the workshops will deal with even broader topics beyond the union issues, such as the information technology and electronic surveillance, on-line access barrier to women workers, and so on. These programs are the improved version, compared with the first labor media.

In conclusion

Now the conference is at its starting point. Please join us and get together to achieve meaningful result. Under the title of this conference, Labor Movement, New Media and Communication : Workers Global Network Strategy against Neoliberal Offensive of Capital, through diverse and creative problem-raising, discussions and debates, let's make this conference an precious opportunity to broaden the perspective for international labor movement and media activities nationally and internationally.

Thank you.